Agriculture in the Classroom
Programs, Activities and News & Notes
Hello from Ag in the Classroom!
This is the first issue of Whiteside County Agriculture in the Classroom's e-newsletter. We plan to share information on upcoming programs, features on ag-related books, classroom activities you can do with your kids, and notes from Diane Baker, our Agriculture Literacy Coordinator.
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What's the Future of Farming?
Our youngest grades focus on how farmers use technology to produce foods that we eat everyday. They are surprised to learn that fresh, juicy tomatoes can be grown here in Illinois all year-round thanks to farmers using greenhouses or hydroponics inside glass houses. Think of that, a bright red, delicious tomato growing without soil here in northern Illinois in January – it happens!
Second graders and fifth graders focus on how farmers are using technology to change how they farm. In second grade, the Magic School Bus introduces students to the “Robot Farm.” Students quickly realize that it’s not just a story, but that the story depicts real advances in agriculture. Students are introduced to vertical farming for our fresh greens, the use of robots for harvesting fruit, autosteer in our tractors and the use of drones in agriculture. Fifth grade takes a more advanced approach and delve further into how drones are rapidly changing agricultural practices because of the new view that farmers and other agriculture professionals can have thanks to drones. How will the use of drones and precision agriculture change the way we farm? Maybe some of our future agriculture scientists are sitting in a Whiteside County classroom today.
Third graders have an opportunity to be hands-on scientists and learn to extract DNA from a strawberry. Students are surprised that, with some smashing and mashing, they can break open the cells of a strawberry and then extract the DNA with a solution made from water, salt and dish soap. Add a little rubbing alcohol and the DNA strand is quickly visible to the eye. It’s that strand of DNA that scientists study in any living thing to learn more about its blueprint.
Fourth grade focuses on technology in farm equipment and specifically John Deere. It's always surprising to me that so many kids don’t realize that John Deere was really a person … let alone, a person who built an entire company that forever changed agriculture, right here within 50 miles of where we live. We start with that famous plow and trace it through time to today’s tillage equipment. Then, we learn about the tractor and follow it from its early beginnings to today's equipment equipped with computers and autosteer and talk about the autonomous tractor which is nearing the market. Think of that, a tractor that doesn’t need a farmer on board. What about the solar-powered autonomous tractor that is still at the concept stage? Will that one day be common in our Midwestern farm fields?
It’s intriguing to think about the future of agriculture and exciting to know that some of the students sitting in Whiteside County classrooms today will be a part of the future of agriculture in some way.
Scenes from Classroom
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Contact Us
Email: aitcwhiteside@gmail.com
Website: www.wcfbfoundation.org
Location: 100 East Knox Street, Morrison, IL, USA
Phone: (815) 772-2165
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whitesidecountyagintheclassroom
Click on the picture to visit the Foundation's website and download this flyer.